This morning, someone posted a comment on a wallpaper I did a month or so ago saying that they weren’t a big fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. Not the first time I’ve heard of someone having a negative impression of the series. Still, it made me realize that I haven’t really shared my first impression of this fourth anime in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise. I actually meant to do that a few months ago, but it seemed like I didn’t have the time. So I guess I go ahead and do it now.
In general, ZEXAL is certainly a lighter series than its predecessor 5D’s. Of course 5D’s was a little darker than its two predecessors. That’s probably one of the reasons why I don’t like the dub of 5D’s, because 4kids had to lighten it up a little to make it more kid friendly. It seemed to me that 5D’s was aimed at an older audience in Japan. Specifically those who were fans of the franchise since the original Yu-Gi-Oh! (face it, the original anime was about a decade ago, so it’s kind of old). Anyway, it looks to me like ZEXAL might be aimed at a younger audience in Japan, so that means that 4kids probably won’t have to make as many radical changes and cuts as they did in 5D’s.
So there are good things and bad things about ZEXAL, and I’ll go through the good first. Probably the best thing about ZEXAL in my opinion is that it introduces the Xyz monsters to the actual card game. This makes the game a little more interesting (not to mention refreshing to players like me who’ve grown a little tired of Synchro monsters). Also, there are some pretty cool monsters that have appeared in ZEXAL so far. Below is a list of my favorites, in no particular order.
- Number 39: Utopia
- Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
- Number 34: Terror-Byte
- Gagaga Girl (Cell-phone Magic Attack!)*
- Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon*
*Note: Two of these monsters have yet to appear in the dub.
Well I’ve talked about the good, now for the bad. The worst quality of ZEXAL might be in its hero, Yuma. He’s kind of a dummy. Yuma can’t even duel well, which I guess sets him apart from the previous heroes who were all great duelists from the beginning. But it’s also an unappealing quality for a hero to have. I mean the hero of a story can be a little bit dense, but you can’t go over the top with it.
Another one of ZEXAL’s negative qualities is that rather than coming up with brand new concepts, it’s recycling old ones from previous shows in the franchise. The best example of this is the relationship between Yuma and Astral. Yuma has a magical item that in some way links him to Astral, a supernatural being that has lost his memories. And it’s up to Yuma to help Astral regain these memories. It’s basically the same sort of relationship that Yugi and Atem (Yami Yugi) had in the original series. Of course there is one difference, Yugi and Atem never bickered the way that Yuma and Astral do. Still, the fact that the writers are reusing stuff seems like a warning sign that the franchise itself is becoming stale.
The final negative quality of ZEXAL is that none of the main characters aside from Yuma and Astral really stand out to me so far. Sure, ZEXAL is still a relatively new series, but it so far does not have the best cast of characters. There does seem to be a bit of potential with a few, like the female lead, Tori, but so far they aren’t very memorable. I guess that about covers my first impression of ZEXAL. Right now I’ll say that ZEXAL is not the best series to come after the original anime, and probably never will be. Still, I’m interested to see where it’s going.
